“I would like to apologise if I had offended anyone,” he told the Selangor State Legislative Assembly today.
Ganabatirau in condemning the attack had initially said it was the work of a “Muslim group”, but later amended his statement by replacing the phrase with “gangsters”, following advice from both sides of the political divide.
The Kota Kemuning assemblyman said it must be made known that the violence which erupted on Monday morning stemmed from these thugs.
Meanwhile, state opposition leader Rizam Ismail welcomed the apology and expressed hope that “such mistakes” would not be repeated.
“This is an isolated case, one between the developer and the temple committee, but due to an oversight it led to chaos, one which saw damage to property and people injured in the process,” the Sungai Air Tawar assemblyman told reporters at the lobby of the state assembly.
Rizal urged the state government to ensure such incidents did not re-occur.
The state government, he said, should play mediator to resolve such issues.
“We also hope the police will take action against the instigator.”
Home Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had revealed that police investigations showed Monday’s attack on the temple was the work of “a group of Malays” hired by One City.
Muhyiddin said police discovered that the lawyer for One City had paid the guards RM150,000 to “control” the situation at the temple on Monday. Describing the move as an “illegal and irresponsible act of intrusion”, he said this had provoked the Hindus in the area, leading to chaos and destruction of property.
Today, however, One City issued a statement denying it had any links to the troublemakers.
On Monday, a group intruded into the temple, causing a disturbance in which several people were injured. The temple was also damaged while a number of vehicles were torched.
Early Tuesday morning, a protest to oppose the temple’s relocation turned unruly as protesters set fire to vehicles and attacked a firefighter. The office of the land developer was also vandalised.
The temple is supposed to be relocated as part of a win-win court solution involving the developer One City, the Selangor state government and two claimants to the temple management, K Chellappa and M Nagaraju.
Both Chellappa and Nagaraju, who were involved in a separate suit over the control of the temple management, agreed to hand back the land to One City after it agreed to donate RM1.5 million to build a new temple on one of two plots of land given to the temple by One City.
Chellappa has since been named as the rightful temple manager, but Nagaraju is refusing to abide by the 2014 High Court consent judgment to relocate.